Band Aid 30: The Battle Against Ebola or Geldof’s Fame Game?

30 years after the first Band Aid single was released, a new set of stars, featuring the likes of One Direction, Ed Sheeran and Emeli Sande, have come together to re-record the classic Christmas hit, with Bob Geldof hoping to raise money to fight the spread of Ebola across Western Africa.

So far, upwards of 5,000 people have been killed by this pandemic, with the number only set to rise after being declared an “international public health emergency” by the UN health agency. Treatment centres are beginning to pop-up across the affected regions, although the virus is still continuing to spread across the poverty-stricken area due to a lack of funds for proper treatments and containment of infected persons.

The video premiered on Sunday night’s episode of The X Factor, featuring a few changes from the original (which has already been released 3 times), most notably of which is the change of the iconic line, as sung by Bono, from “Well tonight thank God it’s them instead of you” to “Well tonight we’re reaching out and touching you”. As well as changing “Do they know it’s Christmas time at all?” to “How can they know it’s Christmas time at all?”.

The changes seem to be an attempt to re-invent the classic single, however on its fourth attempt it can be seen as if Geldof is trying to flog a dead horse, and despite being something that has raised countless amounts of money for good causes across the world, one thinks that maybe now is time for some new fundraising ideas.

Also, the way he publicly shamed Adele for not taking part in the single, despite the fact she made a large donation to Oxfam, can not be seen as a ‘charitable’ deed. Especially when this man worth £32 million is said to use tax avoidance schemes, who is he to tell people how to behave philanthropically?

Despite the rise of free music services such as Spotify and Youtube, Geldof is urging people to pay for the single, which is available to download now, in order to raise as much money for the cause as possible. However, is this really being done just for charity, or is Geldof using it to improve his own image as the man who, when asked how much tax he paid, replied: “My time? Is that not a tax?” Something tells me the later.

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